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Update in handheld electronic resources for evidence-based practice in the community setting
Jill S Burkiewicz1, Kimi S Vesta, Anne L Hume
1Department of Pharmacy Practice, Chicago College of Pharmacy, Mid-western University, Downers Grove, IL, USA.
The Annals of Pharmacotherapy
|November 17, 2005
Summary
Handheld electronic resources like FIRSTConsult, InfoRetriever, and UpToDate offer practical evidence-based practice (EBP) solutions for community pharmacy settings. These tools provide valuable medical literature abstraction at the point of care.
Area of Science:
- Pharmacology
- Health Informatics
- Evidence-Based Practice
Background:
- Community pharmacies increasingly require efficient access to evidence-based information.
- Handheld electronic resources offer a potential solution for point-of-care decision-making.
Purpose of the Study:
- To update on handheld electronic resources for evidence-based practice (EBP) in community settings.
- Evaluate the utility of specific handheld resources for community pharmacy.
Main Methods:
- Identified and compiled commonly used handheld EBP resources.
- Searched MEDLINE and internet for relevant resources using keywords like 'evidence-based practice'.
- Evaluated content, features, usability, system requirements, and cost of selected resources.
Main Results:
- FIRSTConsult, InfoRetriever, and UpToDate were evaluated for handheld use.
- InfoRetriever and UpToDate offer searchable summaries and comprehensive reviews, respectively, but have high memory requirements.
- All three resources provide convenient, point-of-care access to abstracted medical literature for PDAs.
Conclusions:
- FIRSTConsult, InfoRetriever, and UpToDate offer practical approaches to EBP in community pharmacy.
- Selection of a resource may depend on specific features and user needs.
- These handheld tools facilitate evidence-based decision-making at the point of care.